What Happened to Jeremy Elder, the Bama Player Who Robbed Two Students in 2008?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) With all the talk about the four Auburn players who robbed people at their home at gunpoint, many Alabama fans took the high ground and didn't rub it in. Maybe they were remembering Jeremy Elder and the unfortunate incident that happened on their own campus.

If you've forgotten, Saban had just come to Tuscaloosa and one of the players he inherited was Jeremy Elder, who began his recruitment under the Shula regime.

Elder was a little sought-after 2-star defensive lineman from College Park, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. He was recruited by Georgia hard, but chose the Tide.

In February of his first year on campus, Elder stopped two students and robbed them at gunpoint of $26.

The redshirt defensive lineman who had yet to see the field at Alabama ensured that he never would.

The crime stunned the entire Alabama community and the new coaching staff. Elder was gone from the team and the school but because he was still 19, he asked for and got youthful offender status for a first-time offender.

Court records in these instances are sealed, so we don't know the terms of his probation, but we did find out that the gun used was a pellet gun.

The judge on the case felt it was a prank gone very badly. Elder admitted the whole thing when questioned and never lied to the police nor the judge about what happened.

This let him escape serious jail time, and later that year Elder transferred to the Georgia Military Academy, where he became a model student. He asked for and got permission from the courts who were overseeing his probation to seek out and apologize to his victims.

The students he robbed met with him and accepted his apology.

“Playing around, joking around, things of that sort,” Elder told the Dothan Eagle. “I was real young back then. People make mistakes in life and that was one of my mistakes. You learn from your mistakes so I’ve just got to move on with my life. I had never been in trouble, so it’s a lesson learned.”

However, in his first game with Georgia Military, he dislocated his ankle and was sidelined for the rest of the year. At the end of the season, Elder decided he was ready to go back to the big time and joined the football program at Troy.

He is entering his second year at Troy and grateful to have a second chance. He didn't start last year, but is expected to be a candidate this coming season.

"There are friends I made at Alabama that I still keep in touch with," he told the Dothan Eagle, and he said he still pulls for the Crimson Tide when they play. He said he is very sorry for the bad media attention he brought to the school and still has nothing but the highest regard for the school and the staff there.

He said he understands that Alabama and Nick Saban did what they had to do, but is grateful for the second chance that was given to him by Georgia Military Academy and Troy and doesn't plan on ever disappointing them for giving him that chance.

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)